


Chapter Three: Friends?

by jchao745



Series: In The Mid-Autumn: The Sorry We Couldn't Say that Day [7]
Category: Original Work
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 03:35:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6178714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jchao745/pseuds/jchao745





	Chapter Three: Friends?

“Julie, Julie!” Kim hollered Julie’s name, even though she sat right next to her. The sleeping Julie moaned at her calling and Kim, offended by the ignorance, annoyingly shaked Julie until she finally woke up.  
“What is it?” Julie muttered, still half asleep, barely staying awake. The five minutes between each period were one of the few opportunities Julie could get some rest, but it seemed evident to her that with Kim she wasn’t going to get those five minutes.  
“I have to tell you what happened to me this weekend!” Kim said with an urgent yet cheerful tone which confused Julie whether or not it was something of significance.  
“Is it that important?” After her question, Julie immediately thought that she shouldn’t have asked. She knew most, if not all, of Kim’s stories were irrelevant and ridiculous. But, however, Kim needed someone to talk to and it tragically happened to be Julie.  
“Yes, yes! This time it really is.” Julie internally rolled her eyes as she heard an obvious lie from Kim but she had to put up with it until class started.  
“Okay. Go on before I fall back to sleep,” Julie informed Kim to not waste anymore time. Julie went back into a comfortable position, crossing her arms to form a pillow to lay one side of her head on. It seemed like she was on the verge of collapsing into a sleep again.  
“Okay, so for like, Friday dinner I ate ramen noodles because I was like, super lazy and then I went to sleep,” Kim rushed, jumbling her words together. Julie’s attention span began to shrink and so was the gap between her eyelids. “And then I wake up and I’m like - really thirsty, so I went and got a glass of water.”  
“Oh. My. God.” Julie said aside to herself. Although she was dead tired, Kim’s rambling completely made it impossible for Julie to sleep.  
“On my way back, I saw this spider on the floor in front of me and it was like, really strange that I didn’t panic because I’m usually afraid of things with more than four legs!”  
“That’s called entomophobia...” Julie burrowed her head into her arms, now muttering through her sleeves.  
“What’cha say?”  
“I said entomophobia.” Julie’s head emerged from hiding, now giving more clarity to her comments. “Entomophobia is the fear of anything with more than four legs.”  
“Whatever,” Kime said, pushing Julie’s comment aside. “So, you know what I did next?” Kim said with a sudden shift in tone. Kim gave a look at Julie like she was waiting for her to do something.  
“What did you do, Kim??” Julie said with a fake passion.  
Before Kim said anything, she looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to her. Little did she know that Julie was the only person in the world that tolerated Kim’s blabbering. She cuffed one of her hands around her mouth and whispered, “I dropped the cup on the spider.”  
Julie stared forward at nothing, thinking about the words that just came out of Kim. Any person with nine hours of sleep would immediately react, but Julie wasn’t one of those people who had the luxury of getting nine hours of precious sleep. But as she slowly took in every single word in her head, I…dropped…the cup…on…the spider, her eyes instantly widened.  
“But that’s not even the best part,” Kim happily added into their conversation. Julie let out an exhausted exhale. “I basically woke up the entire house and my mom came down with a baseball bat and started sayings things like ‘is there a burglar? Is there a burglar?’”   
So my mom isn’t the only abnormal person with a burglar bat, Julie thought.   
“Take your seats. The bell rang,” the teacher in the classroom demanded.  
“And then she told me to go back to sleep, lol!” Kim ended her story and went back to her desk.   
***  
“Lets eat lunch together!” Lauren excitedly said, energetically lifting her arms in the air, appearing just as Julie left the classroom.  
“Where’s everyone else?” Julie asked, as they usually ate in a group.  
“They went ahead. I came to get you.” They began to walk besides each other. “So I’ve heard you’ve been getting along with Kim. Is that true?”  
“Ehhhh,” Julie thought about what Lauren just said. “I guess so. We had a very interesting conversation today.”  
“Really,” Lauren reacted the about the same way.   
“Yea. Why? Is something wrong?”  
“Just heard from the other girls.”  
“What they say?”  
“They said something like.” They turned the corner and immediately stopped to see something going on in the hallway right in front of them.  
“Say you’re sorry,” Jay demanded to a group of girls. Julie’s eyes widened as it was her friends he was yelling at. Julie absolutely had no idea what was going on. She just stood there as a bystander, asking herself questions that will never get answered.  
“Speak of the devil,” Lauren whispered. At first, Julie didn’t understand what Lauren was referring to but everything was quite clear when she saw Kim in the scene as well. “You tripped her and now her lunch is on the floor.”  
“Just who the hell are you?” It was the voice of Julie and Lauren’s friends.  
“Does it matter? Say you’re sorry,” Jay continued to demand.  
“It’s her fault for running around and flirting with everyone. You’re new so you don’t know how annoying she is,” another girl started to defend.  
“My goodness,” Lauren said, jogging over to her friends’ side. “Just say it was an accident.”   
“Psh,” Jay acted like he overheard Lauren. “Like that was an accident. So are spreading rumors and talking behind each other accidents too?”   
“It’s ok...” Kim whispered. Jay stayed silent for a while, deciding whether or not to listen to Kim’s pleas.  
Jay bent downward and started to pick up the scraps of Kim’s destroyed lunch from the floor and put it on the napkin. “C’mon. This is really yours. Help me.” As they cleaned up, the girls except for Lauren and Julie left the scene.  
“Julie. Lets catch up.”  
“Oh.” as Julie scurried to Lauren. As Julie passed Jay, Jay got up from the ground and whispered something to her.   
Lauren and Julie began walking again, just behind the other girls. “What did he say?”  
“Nothing. It wasn’t for me.” Julie knew she lied and she looked back to see Jay and Kim disappear around the corner Julie and Lauren just came from.   
***  
“What are you doing here?” Julie found Jay sitting on one of the wooden benches in the courtyard reading a book. Not giving an immediate response, Julie remembered the words he said earlier in the day. Some friends you have, she thought about what Jay said.   
“You stalking me too?” Jay closed his book and laid it besides him on the bench. “Wanna take a seat?”   
“Why would you say that?” Julie fiddled with her hands. “You aren’t the type of person who would say that...”  
“How do you know? Does he still exist? I don’t see him. People change.”  
“People change for the better.”  
“And you think you changed? You thought you were friends with everyone. But then you found something and you thought you changed, but you really haven’t because you still think that you have friends.”  
“What do you know about friends?”  
“Still looking,” he stared right at Julie which gave her a disturbing idea and her eyes widened as she found out what he had meant.  
“I see.” Julie took Jay’s offer and sat on the space next to him. “Then I’ll be your discovery. I’ll be your first friend.”  
“You weirdo,” Jay chuckled. “Deal with your own ‘friends’ before trying to make an impossible one out of me. I don’t need to bother putting on different masks for different people. I’m done with the lies.” He got up from the bench and stared into the sky. “It’s something I don’t need at the moment.” He then walked away, leaving Julie to stare at the sky alone.   
“Who’s he?” Julie turned around to see Dennis resting his arms on the open window sill.  
Julie gasped and then said, “Someone I don’t know anymore.”  
“Sounds tough… Ready to go?” They walked towards the entrance and were about to go around the corner when Julie heard the familiar voices of her friends. They were laughing and Julie could picture them smiling during a cheerful conversation, but she stopped where she was and grabbed Dennis’ wrist. Dennis turned to see what is was, but he completely understood what was going on. The gesture meant don’t let them see me.   
“Kim got what she deserved.” It was Sharon’s voice.  
“Yeah, that was so funny when you just stuck your elbow out while she was skipping towards us.” Addison’s voice.  
“And then that boy she was stalking defended her. Like what? That was so weird. Who would do that?” Sydney’s voice.   
“Oh, you guys know for tonight we aren’t inviting Julie.” Sharon again.  
“Definitely,” the other girls almost said in unison.  
“She is so stuck up. She acts all shy and quiet and then shows off how she can get asked out to the festival right in front of us. Like ugh. But yeah, alrighty girls. See you tonight.”  
“They’re gone,” Dennis said, sticking his head around the corner. “Seriously… People are still acting like this in high school?”  
“I guess so.” Julie let go of Dennis’ wrist and walked around the corner they were hiding behind.   
“You okay?” Dennis walked up to where Julie was.  
“I don’t let those kinds of things hurt me.” Without another word, they both left and Julie wondered how many lies she said today.   
***  
Damn this sucks. Julie slumped over her bed, thinking. It’s all his fault. Talking about friends and masks and lies. The memory of what happened at the entrance kept on appearing in her head. Friends shouldn’t question each other. They’re probably just annoyed because I hang out with Dennis too much.   
Julie rolled side to side on her bed before picking up her phone. Maybe I should call Dennis and ask him about it... She dialed the number and put the phone against her ear. Wait … isn’t Dennis the problem…maybe I shouldn’t talk to him after all.  
But it was too late. Several rings into the call, someone picked up.  
“What’s up Julie?” It’s Dennis’s voice. Its so staticky. “It’s really late for a call. Do you need something?” I don’t know. Julie slowly distanced away from the phone but she could still hear Dennis’s voice from the phone. “Are you there? Julie? Is something wrong? Julie?” I want to talk but I don’t know what to say. I need some air. Julie ended the call.  
***  
“I’ll be right back!” Julie yelled while running down the stairs.   
“It’s a school night,” Julie’s mom reacted but Julie was already out of the house.   
It’s all his fault. It’s all his fault. Stupid Jonathan. Stupid Ike. Stupid... Although she was aimlessly walking, Julie found herself on top of the hill with the tree. I guess thinking about him got me here. Serves me right I guess.  
She sat down and continued to contemplate about how her high school life was ruined in one day by one person. She thought so much, she couldn’t tell how much time had passed.  
“Is this your first time seeing the sky from here without the fireworks?” Julie heard Jay’s voice from behind and was startled.  
“Are you stalking me?”   
“Don’t copy me. I happened to have a feeling that you were here.” Jay took a seat nearby Julie and looked straight into the opening that displayed the town.   
“This is a lot different from back then.” The town isn’t that lit up and the skies are barren of color. “You were right. I suck.”  
“Finally. Some truth from you.”   
“Hey!” Julie hit Jay’s arm but he reacted with a chuckle. “It’s about the friendship and what not. I really don’t have friends.”  
“Yea. If you think about it. I was the first person to find you and I couldn’t care less about your well being. Just goes to show that no one cares about you,”  
“Wait, what? First person?” Julie’s suddenly wasn’t that depressed anymore. “You mean there’s more people?”  
“Wow. You’re easy to cheer up. Yea. How do you think I knew about your little disappearance?” Jay paused for a second before continuing. “I got a call from ehhhhh, what’s his name ...”  
“Dennis?”  
“Yea. That’s the guy. Asked me if I knew where you were. Told him that I didn’t want to bother and he gave me a scolding that I didn’t bother to listen.”  
“Then why’d you come?”  
“Knowing the group he called up, they wouldn’t find you if they took the whole night.”  
Group?  
“Lets see,” Jay pinched his forehead. “The other two were Kim and Lauren.”   
Isn’t Lauren hanging out with the rest of the girls and I basically only know Kim by name. Why... just why…  
“They care about you.” Julie’s eyes widened as Jay was able to answer her question out of nowhere. “They’re taking time out of their lives to look for you because they care, and you should do the same for them.”   
“Do you really think I made everything right now?” Despite saying all of that philosophical stuff… I honestly don’t think I can do it.  
“Being right is relative. Changing doesn’t start with the people around you, but with yourself.” Jay lifted himself from the ground. “Although they don’t necessarily have a direct relationship, they somehow relate.” Jay offered his hand to Julie. “And even when you don’t see anything in front of you, there will always be people pushing from behind, even when you don’t know it.”   
Dennis, Lauren, Kim, Mom, Dad, Kate, little brother Derek, and even Jay. They’re all supporting who they care about the most.  
“You going to take my hand or what?”   
“No,” I want to stay here just a little longer.   
“Great. Making me say all that stuff too early,” Jay said, sitting down in the same spot.   
“The stars are beautiful.”  
***  
“Aah-Chu!” Julie sneezed. Julie and Jay were walking home.   
“Idiot,” Julie felt something soft being put on her head.   
A hoody?  
“Put that on. You’ll catch a cold.”   
“Oh.” Julie put her arms through the sleeves. Julie noticed how big the hoodie was. The bottom just barely reached her knees and the cuffs were at least a foot away from her hands. Julie looked at the now, jacketless Jay. Even though it has only been a few short years, Jay had physically grown.  
“If you’re going to run away at night at least know what to bring.”  
Julie couldn’t tell if Jay was being kind or not. His scolding made it hard to distinguish, but Julie knew that Jay was a kind person.   
“Found them,” Jay said and Julie looked forward to see Kim waving, a laughing Lauren, and a panting Dennis. Both groups walked towards each other and met in the middle.  
“Where were you??” Lauren yelled. “Where did you find her?”  
“That’s a secret to everyone.”  
“You didn’t go to the hangout with everyone else?” Julie asked Lauren.  
“As if I would hang out with them again. Once I found out they purposely didn’t invite you, I left. They didn’t even tell me because they knew I was the closest to you. And then I found out from Dennis that you went mia and I was like ‘what the heck is going on??’”  
“Kim?” Julie said.  
“You're only one of the few people who have ever talked to me without getting annoyed... I’m grateful for that.”  
“Don’t…ask…me,” Dennis panted between his words while managing a smile.   
“I know,” Julie laughed. Julie now knew who to cherish and who her true friends were. But it wasn’t without help. Julie knew that if Jay hadn’t been there, she would still be lost.  
Dennis, bent over his knees, still trying to catch his breath, tugged on Lauren’s sleeve. It was then she realized that something wrong had gone unnoticed.  
“Where’d he go?” Lauren pointed out with words.  
“Ike disappeared.” Kim noticed as well and it seemed that Julie was the last to figure it out.


End file.
